A Nugget from New Life Network
Scripture for the Day (July 24, 2017)
Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. (John 14:11)
God has always used signs and wonders to help our unbelief. He used them through Moses to convince the Jewish people to leave Egypt. This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years. (Acts 7:35-37)
He used signs and wonders through Elijah to defeat the false prophets of Baal, King Ahab, and his wicked wife Jezebel. He used them through Jesus to introduce His Son. He used them through the Apostles to start the Church and He is still using them today through the Holy Ghost to touch unbelievers.
Sometimes the very thing that God tells us through His Word is taken in a totally negative light when it shouldn’t be. For example, consider the following scriptures:
Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. (John 4:48)
But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. (John 20:24-25)
God knows our weaknesses. He knows that all of us have a “doubting Thomas” in us. Even knowing that, He does not reject or condemn us for it. What He does do is provide signs and wonders for our unbelief. He has done it from the beginning and He is still doing it today. For I am the Lord, I change not. (Malachi 3:6).
All through the Gospels you see a phrase that Jesus repeated over and over again. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him. (John 10:37-38) In simple English, Jesus was telling them that the signs and wonders that He did were for the unbeliever.
That same pattern continues on today in the Church age. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. (Mark 16:17-20)
And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (Acts 5:12)
Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. (1 Corinthians 14:22)
Signs and wonders are alive and well unless we shut them down with our own religious traditions. We just need to make sure we remember that they are not just for the believer but for the unbeliever which may even be us.
